Duck Pond Scramble Loop
Mohonk Mountain House and Preserve
New Paltz, NY

* This hike requires a day pass, we learned this the hard way! Go first to the mohonk information desk and get a day pass. The Mohonk Mountain House will honor this pass, DO NOT buy it from there you will pay $25 instead of $12. The hike is really worth the $12 dollars!

This hike starts on pine road in New paltz, take 299 through New Paltz and bear right underneath the old remains of the gatehouse (on gatehouse road), take that road till you hit a road that t's up with a bridge to your left and a big white house on your right, take that right. Pine road will be about a mile down the road to your left, take that all the way to the end where you will see a parking space. Begin your hike here:

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The hike will take you up onto the aqua duct you cant miss it. Do not take the actual trail path, go up onto the aquaduct via a few paths along the way. You will soon see the trail head for a blue trail, take that vearing right. This will take you up to duck pond. Follow blue trail markers.

Sign at Duck Pond

Beautiful wildlife everywhere

View from Duck pond toward sky top, this is where your hike will bring you too


After the pond you will head to your right and as the pond ends turn left onto the duck pond trail (red) which will lead you through some thick woods. This path will end up coming out on a road, but you will cross over road and continue upwards. It will start getting very rocky. Continue following the red trail (duck pond trail). At the top you will come to a summer house (see picture)

Summer house

From here you will cross over the road to the Birkin trail (still red). Follow up up and up toward the labrynth as they call it. See photos. Here the scramble brings you through crevices, up ladders and ultimately to the sky top. You will stop at one spot just as you come out of crevise and see beautiful views of the summer houses across the way at the mohonk house, cross the small bridge and continue up.

You just keep going up!

Views from first crawl out of crevise

 When you get to the top you will see that there is a path toward the sky top, which is the building you saw at the bottom (duck pond). Take this tower all the way to the top for some amazing views of the Mohonk Mountain House.

There is some really neat history surrounding the Mountain House. The day pass does not allow you to actually go into the house, but I would say to call ahead of time if you wanted to do a short tour, or for lunch reservations that would allow you inside the home.

After you have left the sky top tower you will need to go down the sky top trail leading toward the mohonk house. This will eventually go right past the house and toward the small restaurant that you will walk right by to the left and continue down that trail. You will come now to another rock scramble (red trail on your left) take this trail through another fun rock scramble. When you leave the scramble you will find yourself turning right onto the next trail heading toward the whitney trail. These trails are marked with a sign, not colors. You will take the whitney trail to the glen anna trail that is right on the left when you are walking on the path. Its almost on the turn, you cant miss it. You will now take the glenn anna trail all the way up a pair of stairs and to your left walking over an actual road. Now you are heading toward the Forrest trail, and you will take that all the way back to the duck pond. You will come into duck pond the opposite direction you did at first, get your bearings and head back to your left and continue to follow the blue trails again toward the aqua duct. Your car will be just where you left it! This is a great hike, and really hard but worth it. The views are great any time of the year. Again make sure you are not overstepping your stay at the Mountain house, its easy to get lost in the grander of it, but remember you are not an overnight guest and they will treat you like a trespasser (even with your day pass). Enjoyable hike, consider it on your TO DO!